Outdoor navigation is widely deployed thanks to the development of various global-navigation-satellite-systems (GNSS), e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS), GALILEO, and the like.
Recently, there has been a lot of focus on indoor navigation. This field differs from the outdoor navigation, since the indoor environment does not enable the reception of signals from GNSS satellites. As a result, a lot of effort is being directed towards solving the indoor navigation problem. This problem does not yet have a scalable solution with satisfactory precision.
An estimated location of a station may be determined by calculating two or more distances between the station and two or more other stations, e.g., Access Points (APs).
The distances between the station and the two or more other stations may be determined using a Time-of-Flight (ToF) measurement procedure (also referred to as “Fine Timing Measurement (FTM)”). A ToF value may be defined as the overall time a signal propagates from a first station to a second station and back to the first station. A distance between the first and second stations may be calculated based on the ToF value, for example, by dividing the ToF value by two and multiplying the result by the speed of light.
The estimated location of the station may be based on the distances between the station and the two or more other stations and the locations of the two or more other stations, for example, using a trilateration method.
The locations of the two or more other stations may be represented based on local coordinate grids, e.g., a coordinate grid corresponding to a specific location.
Large areas, e.g., buildings, malls and the like, may include a plurality of stations, which belong to a plurality of different communication networks. Each communication network may have a different local coordinate grid.